I had a great childhood, born mid nineties and growing up through the early millenium years, I have had some of the best memories.

But the thing is, I really miss being a kid. Nowadays it's all about work, study, and pretty much no play. As a result, perhaps as an overcompensating mechanism, I am one of the most childish students in my sixth form. And people give me stick for it....they're like 'grow up' or 'you're too old for that' or 'real mature dumbass', when I crack jokes or pull pranks.

When did it become uncool to have a child in you Are there others that feel the same or am I the anomaly?

I really feel for the children being born in this current generation; I don't think they'll have the opportunity to be kids for a long time, with society forcing people
to grow up, with all the sex, violence, and darkness depicted in media and games.

I know exactly how you feel. I'm also at Sixth Form and am at that point where people are cramming down the idea of going to uni down your throat. I mean, obviously, the time will come when we go to uni and that but I still want to enjoy what little time of my childhood I have left before I'm forced to be an adult. I barely remember the days when I didn't have to study for exams that could potentially affect the course of my life lol.

I'm only 16, but I know exactly how you all feel, it sucks, because I used to think time passed so slow, and driving, growing up, exams, and all that stuff was so far away, and it seemed slow at the time, but now I'm here, it seems to have gone so fast. Just lately I've been thinking about my life, and everything seems so good and nostalgic in the past (even though it probably wasn't).

Even though I'm only 16, I feel that life is going to be over in a blink.

For some reason, I love holding onto the feeling that I could be "anything" when I grow up, but that's probably going to disappear soon.

(Original post by futuredoctorVSB)
I
I really feel for the children being born in this current generation; I don't think they'll have the opportunity to be kids for a long time, with society forcing people
to grow up, with all the sex, violence, and darkness depicted in media and games.

I think it really depends. I have 4 kids and they are very much kids.

They play outside on sunny days (on bikes, on scooters, with frisbees, with skipping ropes, balls, pavement chalks, blowing bubbles etc).

They wear age appropriate clothes, they have to be in when it starts to get dark, they aren't allowed out of the estate and don't have their own mobile phones because they're within a (loud) shouting distance, they don't know what sex is...

they climb trees, fall over, scrape their knees, like chucking the ball for the dog, think they're big and hard sitting in a tent....

in short they are very very normal children. No different from children were when I was a kid (except I had no computer games).

There is no real reason why children cannot simply just BE children. If they're not, then there's something wrong. It's certainly not because of "being born in this current generation".

You were born in the mid 90s. I was born in 1983. You're a tiddler compared to me, yet you still look back at your own childhood with rose-tinted idealistic glasses. Every generation does it, yet really children ALWAYS have the capacity to "be children" and will, in turn, always look back at their own childhood in exactly the same way their parents did, and their parents did, and so on.

If anything, look at how children used to be. Down the pit or up a chimney at 5 years old. I, for one, am glad of progress.

I appreciate that was a little bit of a divergence from the original point of the thread, but I thought I'd address that final paragraph of yours.
Back to the original point - if you want to act childlike, then go ahead. There's a big difference between being young at heart and being immature though. Don't act like a pillock, but keep yourself young.

They wear age appropriate clothes, they have to be in when it starts to get dark, they aren't allowed out of the estate and don't have their own mobile phones because they're within a (loud) shouting distance, they don't know what sex is...

they climb trees, fall over, scrape their knees, like chucking the ball for the dog, think they're big and hard sitting in a tent....

in short they are very very normal children. No different from children were when I was a kid (except I had no computer games).

There is no real reason why children cannot simply just BE children. If they're not, then there's something wrong. It's certainly not because of "being born in this current generation".

You must be a very good mum to keep your children this well shielded! Well, I get your point, but even you must agree that children in this generation are under a lot more social pressures than when I was a kid or when you were a kid, when society tended to have a better understanding of exposure of potentially harmful influences on children's behaviour.

Parents tend to need to put more energy into maintaining the constant of childhood, by shielding them. It may not be the case in your situation but I'm only making a general point that I've noticed in my day to day life I of course could be wrong as well! And yes, absolutely! There are advantages to the progress in the sense that children have so much more access to things that enrich their childhoods and their lives growing up, but I just thought I'd consider what they are missing out on as well

The good old days when all that mattered was playing footie with my mates, seeing if mum had cooked something nice for dinner and if I got to eat ice cream or not. I was also convinced I was going to be the next Steven Gerrard .

(Original post by futuredoctorVSB)
You must be a very good mum to keep your children this well shielded! Well, I get your point, but even you must agree that children in this generation are under a lot more social pressures than when I was a kid or when you were a kid, when society tended to have a better understanding of exposure of potentially harmful influences on children's behaviour.

Parents tend to need to put more energy into maintaining the constant of childhood, by shielding them. It may not be the case in your situation but I'm only making a general point that I've noticed in my day to day life

What I've noticed, to be honest, is a ridiculous surge of "helicopter parenting". People are so afraid to let their kids play out or get bumps and scrapes, that in a sense they're causing the problems for kids themselves. They protect them from what they perceive to be the danger (falling out of a tree, or being kidnapped), yet at the same time they let them play Grand Theft Auto 5, dress like tarts, and give them a mobile phone with full unfiltered internet. It's ridiculous.

I read a very interesting article a few days ago which you might like to read :

(Original post by futuredoctorVSB)
When did it become uncool to have a child in you Are there others that feel the same or am I the anomaly?

Read that reaaally wrong.

Anyway - you can absolutely still be silly! In the day time, around those who will give a crap, I'm pretty serious, giving super adult faces and responses... but when it's just me/me and my partner, things go otherwise. You just drop that shield and act daft, and it's great. But there's something nice about not doing it in 'public' or all the time. It's just because it relates to immaturity and yes that is, overall, a negative thing because it suggests naivety.
You don't have to be immature to be youthful and fun and silly, is what I think. Part of growing up is about learning 'when and where' things are appropriate, and that really isn't a bad thing.
I totally agree about children though - half of the 11 y/os at my placement are on Ipads in break. o_o It's mad! I'm Dutch, and in the Netherlands there is more of a leaning towards great wooden kid's toys, whereas when I walk down a toy aisle over here it's just plastic plastic plastic. And lots of creepy animals with strange, knowing stares...

Really, who doesn't? I'm such an immature person at heart and I still can't kick it knowing I have A2s in a month. Just last week I was having a nostalgic time having a Disney Channel marathon instead of revising